Nightmares in Neverland
by NikiFrost
Summary: SwanQueen Prompt - justmusicandbreathe asked: Can you do one where Emma has nightmares about her time in the system and only Regina can calm her down?
It's quiet for once, and it's Regina's turn to keep guard tonight. She sits perched on a large rock, a blanket pulled around her shoulders for warmth since she's at the edge of camp with everyone in view. Neverland is surprisingly peaceful during the nights; the days are a whole other story, no thanks to the insipid Lost Boys and their wild hollering.

Brown eyes eventually drift over to where Emma Swan sleeps, a motionless lump within a green sleeping bag on the other side of the campfire. Being stuck on this island with the blonde for the past few days has somehow brought them a little closer, their personal bubbles smaller, their voices warmer with familiarity. Regina tries to convince herself that it's only because Emma is the only person here who really understands her desperation to save Henry, but her heart says differently. It yearns to be closer to her, to touch her, and the thought is what drove Regina to sitting at the edge of camp in the first place. The temptation is lesser here.

She forcibly drags her gaze across the dark forest around them again, trying her best to ignore the blonde and the way her sleeping bag gently bobs with each breath. Ten minutes later and the lump that is Emma shifts around, restless.

"Can't sleep?" Regina asks quietly, automatically standing and shuffling a little closer towards the fire, towards Emma. She's just cold, that's all. Besides, maybe talking with Emma will keep her mind occupied.

But when the blonde doesn't respond, simply continues to move about in her sleeping bag, Regina creeps even closer to check on her. Blonde hair covers most of the younger woman's face but her eyes, squeezed shut, make it obvious that she's still asleep. Her slumber looks anything but peaceful, however. Emma's movements become tense, jerky, erratic. Regina watches, startled, and is reminded of the many times she'd woken Henry from his nightmares.

"Regina?" Snow's awake and is peering sleepily at her from where she and David are hunkered down a few meters away from their daughter.

"Snow-" She's about to tell Snow to tend to her daughter, to help the clearly distressed blonde before things escalate, but suddenly Emma's gasping and thrashing in her sleeping bag, a keen of despair ripping from her throat and waking even the normally dead-to-the-world David. Her parents are hurrying out of their sleeping bags when Emma cries out, tears streaking her cheeks, and Regina stumbles back to get out of the Charmings' ways.

"Emma, sweetheart, wake up," Snow calls, clutching at Emma's fists as David tries to untangle her from her sleeping bag. Emma's eyes remain squeezed shut and she's gasping, trying to control her gut-wrenching sobs, her entire body shaking like a leaf.

"Get off, get off me!" she cries out, cringing away from their hands, and Regina knows immediately that she's still trapped in her nightmares. A look of hurt crosses Snow and David's faces as their daughter tries to push away from them, nearly hysterical.

"What's going on? Swan?" The one-handed wonder is suddenly nudging his way between the Charmings with a look of concern etched into his sleepy features, and annoyance tears through Regina because who the hell does he think he is, trying to console Emma? Because his sudden infatuation with her grants him permission to comfort her?

Emma only shrinks away further with a choked sob, one arm thrown across her face as if to protect herself while the other blindly shoves at the people surrounding her.

"Give her space!" Regina snarls, her voice so sharp and demanding that Snow, David, and Hook all whirl around to stare at her in surprise. "You're making it worse. Back off!"

She storms over to bodily shove them aside, even going so far as to bear her teeth towards Hook in a clear warning. He holds up his hands and shuffles back in defeat, and then all her attention is on Emma where she lays curled up in a ball, her crying muffled against her arms.

"Emma," she breathes, immediately pulling off her blanket to drape it over the blonde's trembling body. Emma's somehow kicked her sleeping bag away and is sitting on the cold ground now, so Regina gently lifts her up by her shoulders to relocate her somewhere warmer.

"Regina?" Emma's voice is as shaky as her body is and the blonde sags against her, head tucked down and her shoulders twitching with each sob. Regina's arms circle her protectively.

"I'm here. You're okay, Emma."

Snow and David gawk at her but she pays them no mind. Emma needs her right now.

"Shhh. It was just a nightmare." She brushes her fingers through Emma's tangled hair and feels cold hands clutch at her shirt, clinging to her as if she were the only thing anchoring her to this world. For a long few minutes they sit like that, Emma's crying growing quiet until she's just sniffling and curled in against Regina's chest, her blonde mane being gently stroked by the brunette holding her. When it becomes clear that Emma's just using her as an excuse to hide at this point, she gives their audience a glare.

"Go back to sleep, she's fine."

"But-" Snow starts. Regina makes a sharp _tsk_ sound as if clucking her tongue at a disobedient dog, and that silences the other woman. After a moment's hesitation, the Charmings return to their sleeping bags. Hook ambles back to his bed roll too after taking a swig of his flask. ("To help me sleep," he mutters at her judgemental glare, but he says no more and is snoring shortly thereafter.)

When all that can be heard is the soft crackle of the fire, Emma finally lifts her head, her eyes red rimmed and swollen from crying.

"I'm sorry," she says, but her voice is so tight and scratchy that it comes out in a whisper.

"It's fine," Regina replies offhandedly, but immediately realizes her mistake when Emma stiffens and moves to pull away, to put distance between them again. Catching the blonde by her wrists, she pulls her back. "Really, Emma. It's okay."

And then, before she really knows what she's doing, she's got one hand against Emma's cheek, thumb gently brushing over the tear-stained skin there, and Emma's leaning into her touch, green eyes fluttering shut. A soft hum of relief escapes Emma's throat.

"Tell me about your nightmare." The request is out before she can think it through, and she sees pain flash through Emma's eyes as soon as they're open again, staring at her in surprise. Backtracking, Regina tries to correct herself. "You don't have to-"

Emma shakes her head and smiles a little. It's a sad, resigned kind of smile, like she's been over this a million times in her own head and it still hurts no matter how much she tells herself that it doesn't, that it's in the past and it doesn't matter now. But still she smiles.

"It was about my time in the system." Regina's eyes soften with sympathy and Emma continues after clearing her throat a little. "Most of the places I stayed at were okay but there's always gonna be one family that slipped through the cracks, one man who gets violent when he's drunk, and when you're just a paycheck to them…"

She shakes her head, glancing over to where Snow and David lay in their sleeping bags. Her lower lip quivers and Regina resists the urge to cup her face again.

"It wasn't all bad. Honestly, I was lucky compared to most kids. I guess this one incident just stuck with me. I think it was the first time in my childhood that I'd feared for my life... And maybe the first time that I truly believed that I would never have real parents. Even now, with Mary Margaret and David… It doesn't feel real. I know they're my parents, but I've been alone for so long that it's like they can never truly make up for not raising me. It never happened and we'll never have any of it. I think some part of me mourns that. Sometimes I want to kick and scream and cry because I should have had that life instead of this one, and there's nothing I can do about it, and it terrifies me. I guess Pan was right; I really am a Lost Girl."

A pathetic laugh escapes her chest and Emma presses her forehead against her drawn-up knees for a moment, arms circling her legs and shoulders heaving with a sigh. After a moment, she feels Regina's arms wrap around her shoulders, the brunette's body pressed flush and warm against her, and Emma leans into the comforting embrace.

"I'm sorry," Regina whispers, and Emma knows everything that she's apologizing for, so she gets her arms around Regina and squeezes her back to silently say, _I don't blame you._

Their cheeks end up pressed together and they just sit there for a long while, clinging to each other like the world is tilting and they need each other for balance, until Regina notices a soft glow of light coming from Emma's bag and nudges the blonde for her attention.

"Is that-?"

"The map," Emma breathes, snatching it out from the bag and unfolding it across their laps. The glow fades away and the map is complete. "I'm a Lost Girl. An orphan. That's what he needed me to admit about myself."

Emma shakes her head in disbelief, fingers trailing across the newly revealed imagery, and they brush across Regina's as the brunette does the same.

"Emma," she says, brown eyes meeting green ones. "We can finally find Henry."

A smile is spreading across Emma's face, the first spark of energy Regina's seen in the blonde all night, and she can't help but smile back.

"Let's go save our son."


End file.
